June 15-18, 2016

Naomi Ceder

Naomi Ceder has been learning, teaching, using, and talking about Python since 2001. She is the author of the Quick Python Book, 2nd edition, the sprints organizer for PyCon, and the co-founder of Trans*Code, a UK based hack day focussing on trans issues. Having worked as an organizer in various communities for almost 20 years, Naomi is a member of the board of directors of the Python Software Foundation for 2015/2016. She speaks about her own experiences of marginalization with the hope of making the communities she loves more diverse and welcoming. In her spare time she enjoys knitting and deep philosophical conversations with her dogs.

Annyce Davis

Annyce is an Android Google Developer Expert. She has been in the tech industry for over a decade and has spent the past 5 years developing applications for the Android ecosystem across multiple form factors. She is also a international conference speaker and author, sharing her knowledge of Android development with others. In addition, Annyce is active in the Washington, DC tech scene and assists with running a local meetup focused on Android development and design.

Julianna Rusakiewicz

Actor turned designer turned developer, I am a bootcamp graduate trying to make my way in an ever-changing and growing field. I grew up in New England and became an adult in New York City, so I yearn for the city and the woods. I primarily develop in Ruby on Rails and AngualrJS, though I am often asked to update WordPress sites. After 15 years in the Theater scene, I accepted a position at a creative agency in Midtown Manhattan. I am constantly learning and trying new things!

Alex Qin

Alex Qin is a Brooklyn based engineer and educator. She spends a lot of time thinking about how to make programming accessible to all. During work hours, she writes code at Skillshare. In her spare time, she enjoys teaching children and adults to code with ScriptEd, Technovation, and giving talks about code, community, and accessibility. She also loves food, and spent part of last summer building a vegetable farm in Brooklyn where the Domino Sugar Factory used to be.

Fureigh

Fureigh is an Oakland-based software architect who believes technology should be kind to humans and so should the state. After their 2014 Code for America fellowshipreducing repeat 911 calls in Long Beach, Calif., they joined 18F, a digital strategy team transforming the federal government from the inside out. Fureigh started New York City’s Drupal Ladder skill-building meetups, has taught United Nations employees how to use Git, and has spoken at conferences ranging from Open Source Bridge toCreating Change.

Coraline Ada Ehmke

Coraline Ada Ehmke is a speaker, writer, teacher, open source advocate and technologist with 20 years of experience in developing apps for the web. As a founding member of Open Source 4 Women and Contributor Covenant, she works diligently to promote diversity and inclusivity in open source. Her current interests include refactoring, code analytics and artificial intelligence.

We’re excited to announce that the Write/Speak/Code Call for Proposals is now open through April 9th 2016! This year our CFP is for keynote speakers who will be opening and closing each day of the conference. All speakers will receive a ticket to the conference and a $500 honorarium. Travel assistance is available by request.

As a conference for women software engineers our attendees are looking for stories that can help them find their voices and expertise as thought leaders. Our conference gives attendees hands-on experience to workshop their ideas into tangible talks, blog pieces, and open source code contributions. Your talk should reflect how you came to find your own expertise, be it in writing, speaking, or open source, and what your journey has been. We are passionate about stories that speak to the diversity of women in tech! After all, our community includes women coders from multiple programming languages, ages, geographic origins, and more.

In order to help you get started we’ve compiled a list of a few resources to help you get started:

Write/Speak/Code, is a (soon to be) non-profit/501(c)3 dedicated to increasing the visibility and leadership of women coders by teaching the skills to become thought leaders, conference speakers, and open source contributors.

Our major annual event is a 3 day conference with each day focused on one of our core skills: writing (thought leadership), speaking (technical conference speaking), and coding (contributing to open source software). You can check out details from the 2015 conference here.

The first two annual conferences were in New York City. Half or more of our attendees have come from out of state and we’d like to show how i(nter)national we really are.

We would like to bring the 2016 Write/Speak/Code conference to Chicago!

But we need your help finding a venue.

Holding the conference at a university during a time when students are on break has worked well for us. We have some unconventional venue needs due to the workshop nature of the conference. That said, we are open to other options.

We would greatly appreciate any leads or introductions for venues in the Chicago area (especially free or low cost ones). Feel free to forward this blog post along.

Thanks!

ps – We are also looking for additional organizers (women in tech who live anywhere) as well as a retreat center/place to house speakers, organizers and scholarship attendees on the cheaper side.

Sample email

Hello there,

A friend of mine runs Write/Speak/Code and is looking to put on a conference for women coders in Chicago in June/early summer of 2016. They have some unique venue requirements (break out rooms, childcare area, pumping/nursing room) that you can see here.

It’s a great organization and good cause (increasing the visibility and leadership of women coders!) and I was hoping you’d be able to help with their venue search.